IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 568

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: horrible spiders
Current Event: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/egyptian-giant-solpugid/

In the creepy tradition of the movie PIRANHA (1978) (which contained a line that, even though I saw the movie 32 years ago has remained etched in my mind forever: “Sir, the piranha, they’re eating the guests.”), I offer you this twist on the theme…or, if you prefer, a twisted theme…

Paul Grogan looked through the windshield of Maggie McKeown’s 2035, Ford F-Series SuperDuty pickup through the pouring rain and into Kelly’s Slough National Wildlife Refuge eight kilometers east of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

“This doesn’t seem to be ideal camping weather,” Paul said.

“Oh, Paul! Where’s your sense of adventure?” Maggie said, then laughed.

He glanced at her. “Probably at the Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport Hilton-Best Western-Marriot-Hyatt Luxury Hotel where I booked us…” He sighed. Mom and Maggie’s dad, officers in the Air Force, scientists – her dad’s a doctor, his mom a specialist in arachnids…

“I thought you wanted to see spiders? This doesn’t exactly scream ‘Spider Haven’.”

“I’m not sure it would be any better for horseback riding, though,” said Maggie.

He sighed, swallowed hard. She knew his wildest dream was to be a horse vet. He said, “What would you want to be more than anything else in the world.” He fingered the engagement ring in his pocket, secretly smiling.

Maggie said, “I want to marry a really, really rich old guy who ‘dies before his time’.”

“What? I thought we were gonna get married!”

She smiled up at him, reached over, patted his hand and said, “I want to marry the rich guy first so I can inherit his millions. After he dies, I’ll marry you and then support you as a vet so you can live wherever you want to live.”

“I want to live with you…” Paul says. He screamed, shaking his hand wildly, “Something bit me!”

“Probably a spider. Your mom says they’re working on spider control here.” She grinned at his horrified look, “You know that that means she’s on some kind of top-secret project to develop spiders as weapons.” Shaking his hand again, he looked behind him and then the place on his hand again.

She said, “Aren’t you afraid it’s going to bite you again?”

“Aside from the fact that I’ve been bitten by just about every spider known to Humanity and have a broad-based anti-venin booster every six months? Not really.”

She snorted. “You just don’t respect spiders the way I do.”

He shook his head and said, “I do feel sorta weird.”

“What do you mean, sorta weird?”

“Sorta like...I want to eat spider meat.”

“Not with the same mouth that kisses these lips!” she exclaimed. “I may love spiders, but I’m not in a kissing relationship with any of them.”

He blinked hard and swayed. “I’m not kidding, Meg. I feel like I’m out of time.”

For the first time, she looked alarmed. “Like you’re going to die?”

“No – not that out of time. Like I’m out of our time. Like I want to go Spider hunting…”

“Why do I get the feeling that we’re not talking about traditional Earthly spiders?”

“I...I...have a really, really awful craving for some spider meat. Lots and lots,” he looked at her with wide eyes, “Spider meat.”

Names: ♀ Ancient Greece, Ireland; ♂ Israel, Ireland
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

Jax Lunar Lumber Chapter 1: Birth of The Colony

For some reason, this post originally attracted some 1200 hits. I'm ready to get back to it now, but I'll start with this...

On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Knox was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways), the rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered.

When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what..."

I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?”

We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!”

Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings begin below.

As we rolled down the driveway, I snickered. We were on our way to pick up supplies for our early May project in the backyard. This year, her first as a Retired Person, she had exploded from the gate with dozens of plants ready and waiting to be transferred outside. An early spring blizzard had chased anxious Minnesotans back inside twice this year and so the porch was a jungle of young tomato, squash, herb, cucumber, zucchini, chamomile, beans, onions, and carrot plants. She said, “What?”

“I just had a weird thought.”

She rolled her eyes and with a justifiably long-suffering tone, said, “What?”

“Well,” I started, hesitating. It was a strange idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe… I said, “You remember how, when I worked for Knox, they said if you waited a year, you could buy everything you needed to…”

“…build a house. Of course I remember. What about it?”

“Well, I was just wondering if it would be possible to buy everything you needed to build a Lunar colony.”

At first she snickered, but after a pause, we both said in unison, “Yes.”

That was the birth of Jax Colony, and I sit here looking past a pile of Lunar regolith outside the main airlock of the colony, I’m amazed that someone didn’t think of it thirty years ago during the “rush” to go to Mars.

I know that Weir Base on Mars is a going concern, but they only have fifteen people and they’re mostly scientists and engineers. We have those here at Jax, but we also have fifty-three other Waqans, Khadijahs, Toms, Katherines, Mayras, Miguels, Dayvons, and a bunch of other people who cook, patch, build, and like me, maintain the plumbing…

Resources: http://anynewsbd.com/lunar-lava-tubes.html

Image: http://anynewsbd.com/images/lunar-lava-tubes-3.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 567

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: Most lycanthropy, telekinesis, etc starts at puberty why not at menopause…
A Not-So-Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf

According to the source above – “A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of an 80-year-old man named Thiess. In 1692, in Jurgenburg, Livonia, Thiess testified under oath that he and other werewolves were the Hounds of God. He claimed they were warriors who went down into hell to do battle with witches and demons. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was steadfast in his assertions, claiming that werewolves in Germany and Russia also did battle with the devil's minions in their own versions of hell, and insisted that when werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service.”

Teodors Pakalns (Latvian) – who goes by Ted in his Minnesota high school is in his supposedly “native land” while mom and dad go clubbing on the French Riviera to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. While admitting to himself that with the divorce rate at 73%, it might be something worth celebrating. But sending him to live with his LATVIAN grandfather in some dinky town of Lode! Near the bustling metropolis of Rujiena? What the heck is he supposed to do?

He frets, fumes and mutters about lousy internet connections until he’s so hungry, he can’t stand it. Coming out to eat, he finds that his grandfather has made a simple meal. It smells great and looks sort of like a calzone. Ted eats one, then eats another and then in sudden and surprisingly good English, grandpa tells him a story. He also tells him he needs to watch out – grandpa Pakalns is a werewolf. He’s a werewolf on a mission from God!

Jaanjika Kivi (Estonian) is called Jan in Helsinki where she lives with her artist mother. She drags Jan to visit her “she’s-been-dying-for-the-last-ten-years” grandmother in Mom’s home of Estonia, which she escaped as a kid by winning an art scholarship to Helsingin Yliopisto the University of Helsinki. Jan and her mother trek to the tiny Estonian town of Karski near the roaring metropolis...of Tartu.

*sigh*

Mom says she can go, but she’ll have to walk. Then Mom goes out to paint, leaving Jan with her elderly grandmother. Jan is mostly afraid of the old woman and doesn’t remember her speaking anything but some old language Jan assumes is Estonian.

Until suddenly Grandma starts to tell a story – in clear English – about how she was a werewolf, on a mission for God...then she turns to Jan and says, “You are my granddaughter. My own daughter refused to take up the mission. I am asking if you would take up my mission; complete it and do what our people have been called to do for five hundred years. I will be with you the entire time, but you must be my strong arms and strong legs. Will you do it, Jaanjika?” Grandma’s eye’s suddenly clear and seem to pierce her heart. “Will you?”

Jaanjika meets Teodors on the border between Estonia and Latvia – in the heart of the ancient land of Livonia, a land with an ancient history that may very well be poised at the dawn of a new era that rights a millennium old wrong.

But what about the forces that don’t want the wrong set right. The ones who have profited from the carnage? Who are they and what will they do to Jaanjika and Teodors?

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia
Image: http://img.costumecraze.com/images/vendors/california/01047-Adult-Big-Bad-Wolf-in-Grandma-Dress-Costume-large.jpg
Image:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Can This Story Be SAVED? #32 “DRIVING [GENDER FLUID, RELATIONALLY EXPEDIENT] DAYZEE” (Submitted 4 Times Since Sept 2020, Never Revised)

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver. In April of 2014, I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the things I did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories. I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’s quote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales, but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look at what I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments are welcome!

ANALOG Tag Line:
What if Humans aren’t as “primitive” as aliens THINK we are; and what if aliens aren’t as ADVANCED as we expect them to be? [After re-reading it and reading about the movie that sparked it, “Driving Miss Daisy”, the theme would be “Can aliens and Humans communicate without words – and maybe if they DID try to communicate without word, their message would come across more clearly.”]

Elevator Pitch (What Did I Think I Was Trying To Say?)
Someday, Humans will come into contact with aliens. We seem to think it will be totally random and one-sided – aliens abducting Humans for experimentation – or entirely between equals; like Zefram Cochrane meeting the Vulcans. What if it’s messy and only barely standardized; yet still interstellar?

Opening Line:
The beat officer scowled as the Tesla Ten Luxury Limousine Conversion seemed to float silently past his unmarked squad car, turning down the street his daughter and granddaughter lived on.”

Onward:
Someone at the end of Carlos Bander’s block has kidnapped an alien intelligence who somehow crash-landed in the marsh at the edge of the park. The Kifush alien, going by the name of Miz Dayzee is there to find out where it went before one of the primitive Humans murders it and causes an interstellar incident.

Through endless talking, they figure out who; Carlos approaches him; he surrenders the alien. The end.

What Was I Trying To Say?
Humans may have a skill at domestication, which a particularly violent intelligence might be interested in learning. This story was sparked by the movie, “Driving Miss Daisy”, winner of numerous awards for films made in 1989. Of that inspiration, virtually nothing overt remained…though there are hints of it I can see after rereading the story and reading the synopsis of the movie.

The Rest of the Story:
Carlos, killed when Chek runs him over is resurrected and saves the life of the granddaughter of the man who’s holding the Shabe hostage – is pressed into service in order to fix things up. This is supposed to be the first of an entire series about Carlos; and I have a Triptych planned for him as well (two of the stories are already written)…

End Analysis:
I’m on page 10 and nothing has really happened – except Carlos go run over and (presumably) almost died. Otherwise, there’s NO ACTION AT ALL. It’s been “sparkling repartee” and that’s it. That and a turkey dinner will nourish your imagination.

The red ball, which is actually part of the common language of the Unity is extremely distracting. I would have to figure a way to incorporate it into the written English transcript.

Also, there was no driving, except by Chek Yeltsin…

The thing is that, I think I may have heard the voice of this story. I wrote it a year or so ago, I was trying to be “trendy”. While there’s nothing wrong with that, the title promised WAY more than it delivered. In fact, there was nothing in the story that had ANYTHING to do with “Miss” Dayzee. It was cutesy in the extreme with absolutely no meat on its bones whatsoever – and might as well have been called, “Some Stuff Happens After a Man In the Neighborhood Captures an Injured Alien and Nobody Cares”…

Can This Story Be Saved?
As is? Absolutely not, mostly because absolutely nothing happens that isn’t predictable and actually boring.

HOWEVER: Of “Driving Miss Daisy”, “Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it ‘a film of great love and patience’ and wrote, ‘It is an immensely subtle film, in which hardly any of the most important information is carried in the dialogue and in which body language, tone of voice or the look in an eye can be the most important thing in a scene. After so many movies in which shallow and violent people deny their humanity and ours, what a lesson to see a film that looks into the heart.’”

What if I reimagined this using Carlos as a bitter widower, his anger with no target, who finds an alien he recognizes as one that’s bent on using Earth. Can he get even with its people – or does he have a basic decency that makes him step back and learn to communicate with it; begin to understand it, and discover that it has a real fear of Humanity because we possess the ability to alter them for all time, making them powerless to stop anyone from taking them over? Who will be responsible? Who will save the day – if the day can be saved at all? Can anything be done to change Carlos – and to change the aliens?

Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 566

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: “All Planets Are Exactly Like Earth http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllPlanetsAreEarthLike
Current Event: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/07/a-super-earth-found-in-the-habitable-zone-of-a-sun-like-star/

Hamsa Mohmand squirmed in his wheelchair and muttered, “This isn’t exactly how I envisioned meeting an alien welcoming committee.”

“Be happy the *trill*Geh are willing to meet with us at all,” said Layan Joya. “There are indications their culture has no tolerance for handicaps.”

“We’re not handicapped!” Hamsa exclaimed.

“To them we are. Now be quiet.” The airlock from the lander to the outdoors irised open. A fresh breeze blew across their faces. Layan said, “Dill weed.”

“Lemon.”

“Alien,” she said, then sneezed. She glanced at Hamsa, eyes wide, “What if we’re allergic to them?”

“Allergens would have shown up in analysis. There’s never been a meeting so carefully coordinate and planned as this one.”

“Yeah, from fourteen hundred light years away!”

“Good thing we have the q-no.” The quantum nonlocality device allowed them to speak with anyone on Earth without delay. Their first encounter with the *trill*Geh was being broadcast back on Earth in every format and language.

“A lot of good that’s done us…”

“Quiet, they’re here.” A broad moving platform on multiple small wheels rode up to the foot of the ship’s gangplank. On it lay a living being that looked like a biological version of the vehicle – wide, flattened, and covered with what appeared to be gray leaves that lifted and fell in a rhythmic, faintly nauseating pattern. “Watching them never made me feel queasy from the ship,” she whispered.

“It’s the direct contact and the smells and the double gravity – all together. One of the braniacs on Earth said this might happen.” He sneezed.

The *trill*Geh moved off the vehicle with a sinuous, millipede-like stride. The forward portion of the creature lifted from the ground and four pairs of tentacles unrolled. The tips of the uppermost two and lowermost two twisted together, the central four stretched out at forty degrees from each other. The effect was of a six-pointed star. At the top was a crown of blue cilia that never stopped moving. Abruptly, every one of the leaves stuck out and the *trill*Geh dropped to the ground. It was instantly back on all of its feet again.

“What was that?”

“I have a funny, unfunny feeling about this…”

Names: ♀ Afghanistan; ♂ Afghanistan
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 8 – Faith in God and the Exploitation of the Riches of the Asteroids (literally, “star, like”…)

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…So, I’m going to make this an occasional feature of my blog – maybe even of Stupefying Stories if the CyberPunkMaster gives me a thumbs up…

OK…a thought occurred to me, but it’s going to take me several paragraphs to get there, and some people won’t like where I end up…

Take this article from 2016, where none other than Neil deGrasse Tyson predicts that the first TRILLIONaire on Earth will come out of asteroid mining. (https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/neil-degrasse-tyson-says-space-ventures-will-spawn-first-trillionaire-n352271).

Another writer predicts that the only way we’ll be able to mine the asteroid will be the drive of religious minorities of EVERY stripe – the way Europeans invaded North America in the first place.

The Harvard International Review, in an April 2022 article notes, “Notably, the Tel Aviv researchers also predicted that within this struggle, developing countries would be significantly affected because they heavily rely on mineral exports and do not have the resources to build their own asteroid mining operations.” The article concludes, “While this is a necessary debate moving forward, it is imperative that such conversations not only involve countries with significant abilities to enter space and conduct asteroid mining operations but also those who stand to bear the brunt of its negative economic impacts. It is high time to bring all countries to the asteroid mining table.”

So…let’s speculate. Using an ANALOG article by Raymund Eich (I already referenced it in Asteroid Mining #5 here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/06/slice-of-pie-mining-asteroids-part-5.html ) and the quotes from above, I want to look more closely at how asteroid mining by religious groups would look.

How about the most obvious? The British, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Norse, Portuguese, and French grabbed the “kindest land”, leaving California, the Patagonian Desert in South America, the Northwest Territories from California north to Alaska, and the northern Great Plains for later. (Even today, the Great Plains is technically “uninhabited” (“The Great Plains includes portions of 10 states (Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) plus parts of three Canadian Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) and occupies the central third of the land mass of the United States. The area covered is roughly 2,900,000 km2. There are currently 6.2 million inhabitants of the Great Plains giving a population density of 2.1 persons/km2.” (https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Plains/Study-and-exploration) The US was settled by several groups of religious dissidents: Indigenous religions remained, and adding to the mix were Judaism, Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Congregationalist, German Pietist, Lutheran, Methodist, Quaker, Puritans, natural religion, Protestant Rationalism, and non-conformist Protestants.

“Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of 1,564,116 square kilometers, with a population of just 3.3 million, making it the world's most sparsely populated sovereign nation. Calculations show that this works out to 2.1 persons/km2.” (Mongolia, Wikipedia) Mongolian shamanism has been widely practiced throughout the history of what is now Mongolia, with similar beliefs being common among the nomads of central Asia. Half of the population are Buddhist, most of the rest are no religion (or shamanist), and there is a smattering of Islam, Shamanism, and Christianity.

The predominant religious populations in Canada were initially French Latin Rite Roman Catholics, primarily Jesuits who were dedicated to converting the Natives. Protestants of the Lutheran variety moved in, as well as Congregationalists, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists.

All of this to say, that invading colonialists from Europe or from China had a profound effect on the industrialization of four immense continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia) that they claimed that their authority was either sacred or secular – it apparently didn’t matter which. Africa has a similar mix of religion as Europe, Asia, and North and South America and is the birthplace of at least three of them. India is the birthplace of the third-largest belief-system on Earth: Hinduism. It is dharma, a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. Referred to as Eternal Dharma, this refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts.

So – as various religions had a hand in creating every society on Earth, so it seems logical that they would ALSO have a hand in creating societies in space. In a short story I wrote, I completely missed this aspect when I assumed that prison inmates would have no religion. When the opposite may be true. Two of the most influential African Americans during the Civil Rights era came from deep faith backgrounds – Malcolm Little became a convert to Islam, and that faith a vehicle for change in the United States as well as the rest of the world. “In 1934, the Baptist World Alliance sent Reverend King Sr. on a multinational trip, including to Berlin for the meeting of the Congress of the BWA, [visiting] sites in Germany associated with the Reformation leader, Martin Luther. While there…they issued a resolution: ‘This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward coloured people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.’…King Sr. changed his name to Martin Luther King, and his 5 year old son's name to Martin Luther King Jr.”

Religion, faith even in Humanity, is a potent driver of change. The faithful, finding the Earth growing more restrictive of their beliefs – and please reflect carefully before you exclaim that I must be crazy (and if you equate faith with a certain demagogue, then you’re not thinking deeply enough). If you are a person of faith, you know what I mean.

But what does this mean for me NOW?

If governments don’t move soon, religions will eventually populate the skies the way they populated the landmasses of Earth. What does that mean, “MAGA Conservatives raining down from space?” Hmmm…that has interesting story potential, but they need to remember that there are other religions on Earth (I would even say that there are people for whom science is a religion (religion: (it may only be the third meaning, BUT it's here, “a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance”. As a science teacher for 41 years (and a summer school science teacher who uses science in his classes), I KNOW what science is. My major was in biology, but included training in geology (physical and historical), physics, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, and education; fairly broad swaths of Human thinking. I happen to be a Christian as well – with a variety of friends who don’t think like I do, and for whom I am immensely thankful and have no trouble asking questions.

What would the “religious skies” look like? Many non-religious people automatically think that religions would tear each other apart and soon they’d be all gone. Evidence to the contrary – which I tried to show about – differences in faith hasn’t ALWAYS been an automatic “hate sentence” and mass slaughter of people with different beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, is HAS happened. But, the blame has to go around to ALL systems of belief, not just the one you dislike most – and it would be best to include philosophies her as well. Communism, which is intentionally and vehemently NOT religious, has fostered plenty of hatred for those who believe differently, as well as promoting ethnic hatred…

So, where will these refugees go?

Where they’ve always gone: as far from their persecutors as possible.

Today’s Links: https://hir.harvard.edu/economics-of-the-stars/
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission, https://www.spacesettlement.com/asteroid-mining.html
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 565

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)

H Trope: Attack of the Killer Whatever
Current Event: “In various Stephen King short stories, he has had people attacked by novelty chattering teeth, paintings, a toy monkey, evil toads... If it can be seen as even vaguely creepy by anybody in the Western world, chances are it's killed somebody in a Stephen King story.”

Liam Johnson held his cellphone, staring down at it.

Sophia Smith, sitting next to him, said, “What are you waiting for?”

The roar of voices in the lunch room was almost deafening. He didn’t hear her – or didn’t respond – until she nudged him.

When he looked over at her, there wasn’t any color in even HIS usually pasty face. His freckles, even now that he was fifteen, still stood out on his face like spaghetti sauce blotches. At least he’d got his hair cut super short over winter break, Sophia thought with approval. The red stuff at shoulder length had been almost too much to stand! He said, “The last time I read a new Stephen King book, I almost died.”

Sophia shook her head and took a bite of her taco salad then made a face. “The food didn’t get any better over break, I’ll tell you that much. Why can’t they just order out from Taco Bell?”

“You’re not listening to me!” Liam said.

“Sure I am – the last time you read this guy’s book, you almost pissed yourself.”

“I didn’t say that. I said I almost DIED.”

Shaking her head, she toasted him with another forkful of salad and said, “Whatever.”

He stood up abruptly, looking down at her with the strangest look then said, “I gotta go.”

“Go where? It’s the first day of a new semester. You don’t have any homework.” She sighed, he could be almost as dramatic as her friends. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him down on his chair again. “OK – let’s start at the beginning.”

The cafeteria was jammed and someone had been moving in on Liam’s seat when she pulled him back. If it had been another freshman, she wouldn’t have bothered, but the look the guy was shooting at her was deadly. She grabbed her lunch tray without letting go of Liam and said, “This was making me sick, anyway.” She tossed it into the nearby garbage can and towing him after her, made her way to the stairwell.

The supervisor knew them both and waved them through. When the door shut behind them, muted to a dull roar, she said, “The last story this guy wrote almost killed you…” she paused.

He wouldn’t meet her eye, looking down at his ereader. Finally he lifted his chin and said, “Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but his stories...they’re somehow linked to me.”

“You mean like ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ linked to you?”

He make as if he were thinking, then shook his head, “Not that closely linked.” He pursed his lips, sucked the top one between his teeth then said, “I love reading…”

“Duh!” she said, slugging him softly on the shoulder. “I do, too.”

“Nah, you like your Ebony and Essence,” he held up one hand defensively, “Not that that’s bad! You’re like my only friend that reads as much as me, but,” he looked down again, “When I read a Stephen King book or story, I get sucked into it. I can’t explain it, exactly. It’s like the book is about me, but not about me. That’s why I don’t dare read his newest one...which I got for Christmas...which I can’t NOT read...which, if I do it's gonna kill me. Like, for real...”

She grabbed his cellphone, cussing, and thumbed it on. The cover of the book showed a guy who looked like he was delivering mail in a tornado. In bold, red letters across the bottom – smaller than Stephen King’s name in bolder, redder letters across the top, was the word, MAIL…”

Names: ♀ ; ♂ Most common US names 2014
Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS/WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 19: The REAL Possibility of Intelligent Alien Aliens

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.

Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction. After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

Update 11/5/2022: A BRAND NEW article on BBC News: Humans are still searching for signs of intelligent alien life on other planets – but how would we react towards it if we ever did make contact? https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221101-should-extraterrestrial-life-be-granted-sentient-rights

I’ve been a fan of SF movies with aliens in them since I watched “Invasion of the Saucer Men” when I was 13 (1970). It was a movie that was, oddly, 13-years-old as well, made in 1957. I was watching a late-night TV show called “Horror, Incorporated” when the movie ran. Unlike my response to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” (where I threw the blankets over my head when the camera panned to the eyeless farmer); my reaction to the still-living, alien hand – torn off when the couple who’d been making out at Inspiration Point and heading home, ran over one of the invading aliens – was total absorption.

Since then, and fueled by a BS in biology, and an addition that allowed me to teach Earth Science in MN, I’ve been fascinated by alien biology.

Like anyone else who reads and writes science fiction, I believe with all my heart that there is intelligent life Out There and just because we haven’t definitively “met Them” yet, they HAVE to be out there somewhere.

But, what’s the REAL possibility of finding intelligent life off of Earth, if not in our Solar System or orbiting a nearby star, then SOMEWHERE in the universe? I refuse to accept Ellie Arroway’s lecture to a group of kids at the end of the movie, “I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?”

Carl Sagan’s book of the same name, that has been misattributed to his own invention, which was coined by John Burroughs (American naturalist and nature essayist) in ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE (“On Other Stars”) (1920). His exact words are, “If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be na inhabited, what a waste of space.” It has repeatedly been attributed to Carl Sagan because he quoted it at a November 20, 1972 symposium on “Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man”, held at Boston University. But the fact is that, it originated half a century before he quoted it.

Like the quote, and despite our firm belief that Modern Civilization “invented” the idea of aliens and alien worlds – because we’re just SO forward thinking – the concept of aliens and alien worlds has been around since Roman Empire actually ruled Western Europe: “The famous Roman poet Cicero was interested in the possibility of living beings on the Moon, and his Somnium Scipionis may have inspired Plutarch (46 A.D. - 120 A.D.) to write his account of a visit to the Moon. In Facies in Orbe Lunare…

Plutarch endorsed the Pythagoreans thus: ‘They affirm that the Moon is terrestrial and inhabited like the Earth, peopled with the greatest living creatures and the fairest plants...’”

Then the author makes an unsubstantiated claim that the Church was responsible for a thousand-year silence regarding the possibility of space travel and alien life writing, though they hedge their bets by what I call weasel words, “…This may probably be attributed to the pervasiveness of the Church philosophy and its rigid opposition to the idea of the plurality of worlds. The pronouncement of…the Bishop of Chiusi, in 1145 A.D. was perhaps typical: The belief in many worlds was to be condemned as heresy.” They provide no references…then runs with their conclusions, making Thomas Aquinas into some kind of simpering idiot: “If God really was all-powerful, why was he only able to create one world? Conversely, if only one world existed how could God possibly be truly infinite and omnipotent? The theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) came up with a ‘solution’ to the problem: God had the power to create infinite worlds, but all the matter in the universe had been used to construct Earth!” Continuing the narrative (and using exclamation points to highlight the author’s disbelief, “…“…the Church subsequently partially reversed its extreme position. In 1277…[the Church] decried as new heresy the belief that a plurality of worlds was impossible!...According to the physics of Aristotle (“from his teachings…the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.”)…still in vogue (sounds like the author is stating that Aristotle was some sort of fad that soon passed) until the 16th century, if any other worlds did exist they would have to gravitate to the center of the universe (where Earth was). But it became wrong to suggest that God could not create many worlds if He wished.”

“The debate was far from ended. In 1410 the Jewish philosopher Crescas wrote: ‘Everything said in negation of the possibility of many worlds is vanity and a striving after wind." Still, he was unwilling to stick out his neck very far: ‘...yet we are unable by means of mere speculation to ascertain the true nature of what is outside this world; our sages, peace be on them, have seen fit to warn against searching and inquiring into what is above and what is below, what is before and what is behind...’”

“…during the Inquisition in Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa in 1440 in which he stated: Rather than think so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited, and that this Earth or ours alone is peopled.. .we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God.”

Considering how little we know about other animals here on Earth, he claims, "of the inhabitants....of worlds other than our own we can know still less, having no standards by which to appraise them.”

“As astronomical observations became more accurate, the geocentric Aristotelian/Ptolemaic world view began to generate problems that were difficult to resolve…[and] The roadblocks to the idea of intelligent alien life on other worlds were rapidly disintegrating.”

So, there’s an interesting view of the past. Now that we have the Science of the 21st Century, it should be obvious by now that all discussion of life on other worlds has more-or-less resolved itself into a fairly uniform belief: it’s ABSOLUTELY THERE!!!!

Hold on a moment!

Current speculation – and make no mistake, every thought we have or write (I include myself here and now) is PURE SPECULATION. There is NO EVIDENCE of life existing anywhere else but Earth. NO EVIDENCE (alien abduction victims to the contrary), we have no evidence (which is essential to good police work and science) of life existing anywhere but right here. That’s evident from the range of articles written and referenced below – that in the second and third decades of the 21st Century that there could  STILL logically be between “we’re all alone” to 42,777 intelligent civilizations to “numbers almost too large to imagine”.

It doesn't seem that we've progressed very far from Cisero, Plutarch, and the obstructionist Roman Catholic Church – we have no evidence PLUS theories and mathematical calculations whose solutions vary wildly from We Are Alone to a universe teeming with life eager to contact us if only…the most recent speculation I’ve heard is that communication between the members of the Inter Galactic Union of Intelligences and Humanity waits until a civilization can both detect and effectively control gravity waves the way they control the EM spectrum!

There was serious work done on generating gravity waves in 2012: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875389212025163; though it wasn’t until 2016 that we detected them: https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/gravitational-waves-detected-scientists-announce#:~:text=Gravitational%20waves%20have%20been%20detected,detector%20in%20Italy%20have%20announced; and in April of 2022, astrophysicists discovered another way of detecting those waves: https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/gravitational-waves-detected-scientists-announce#:~:text=Gravitational%20waves%20have%20been%20detected,detector%20in%20Italy%20have%20announced.

Speculation (there’s that word again!) is, now that we can generate and detect g-waves, maybe we can finally hear if there’s anyone chatting Out There! (https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/extra-terrestrial-alien-communicate-gravitational-lensing/)

There seems to be a monumental gap between amorous teenagers and astrophysicists, but it's where we are right now. Until we get firmer evidence of aliens OUT THERE, (*sigh*), we’ll just have to be satisfied with the probability of intelligent aliens hovering somewhere between “we’re alone” and “too many to imagine”…

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-are-in-the-milky-way-astronomers-turn-to-statistics-for-answers/, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-many-aliens-are-in-the-milky-way-astronomers-turn-to-statistics-for-answers/, https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2149, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/magazine/extraterrestrials-technosignatures.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/15/magazine/extraterrestrials-technosignatures.html (I did NOT watch it all as there were an inordinate number of “Ahsss…” in the first fifteen minutes…); https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1675/life-in-the-universe-what-are-the-odds/; (Generic article without the math: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a32603529/math-formula-aliens-exist/; SERIOUS article WITH the math: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1921655117
Resource: http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxeN5el5trfkDBab1JMTn2sjtNrDRjZGBZ0Yhmzbp4QlSDCUeQmF2u8m0Fco4a3dMhV3OaqJyvPMPS9a8pj3Aolcp-g5fhwUQQeHgLS_AN7ANbOqUTRvrMJUJwntT9sewHDantLfTfgeTW/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-19h01m18s14.png

I HAVE A NEW STORY IN THE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 ISSUE OF ANALOG!

Illustration from my newest story in the November/December issue ANALOG Science Fiction & Fact!

It's my SEVENTH story in the magazine, and the second one with the characters Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM and Staff Sergeant Thatcher (the first was "Road Veterinarian" in the September/October 2019 issue).

The really fabulous art is by Eldar Zakirov. His website is here:

https://eldarzakirov.com/

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 564

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

F Trope: transmutation (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation)
“Transmutation circle, a circle used to perform alchemy” I think I’m going to mine THIS idea in various ways for a while!
Current Event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZjp32EiTzM

Alchemy is thought to have been the deepest roots of the science we know as chemistry. As such, it had its origins in many, many cultures – from Pharaonic and Hellenic Egypt, Eighth Century Arabia (the name “chemistry” comes from an Arabic word, al-kimia), Medieval and Renaissance Europe, India, and China – then matured into the science.

Ishaq ibn Musa and Meitreyi Nur Jehan are friends at Obama Middle School. Ishaq – who tries really hard to go by the nickname, IM – was skimming TreeFlicks (3D online streaming videos) when he downloaded a flik of a person drawing a transmutation circle.

He got the measurements and veeked – visually communicated – with Meity J and told her to meet him at a nearby playground after school...

Meity waited for Immy with her arms folded over her chest. It was cold today, even though it was late August. “So much for Anthropogenic Global Cooling,” she muttered. She veeked him again, but he wasn’t answering.

Suddenly someone behind her shouted, “Boo!”

Meity J turned around and said, “It’s not even close to Halloween yet Immy.”

He grunted and said, “Who spat in your bean curd?”

“No one! It’s just that I have a hundred things to do before school starts next Tuesday!”

“Like what? We’re just starting a new school. Nothing’s going to be different...”

“Except in high school, we might actually get to see a physical teacher!”

He grunted and put down a small plastic bucket. His jacket bulged in odd directions, as if he were carrying packages underneath. “That has about as much of a chance happening as me turning you into an oriole.”

“Orioles are extinct,” she said, irritated that he chose NOW to pick on her favorite extinct animal. “That was really mean of you.”

“What,” he said, straightening up, “If I told you I could turn a pigeon into an oriole?”

“I’d say, ‘fat lot of good that will do the species!’ You can’t repopulate a species with one bird, stupid!”

With a flourish, he reached under his jacket and pulled out a plastic box. Inside, something brilliantly orange and black squirmed. He said, “What if you had one male and one female?” He popped the top off and an oriole – the first one Meity J had seen since she was a kindergartner and her director had used query markers on colorful birds to lead the class to a discussion about ‘extinction’ – flew out. He removed another box. This one had a pigeon in it.

“What are you going to do with that thing?”

He grinned, set the box down and started clearing a circle on the concrete game square. “We’re going to make a transmutation square and start making orioles out of pigeons!”

Meity J scowled for a bit, then said…

Names: ♂ India, Muslim; ♀ India, Hindu
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg